I became aware of the Impostor Syndrome eight or nine years ago, when I was working for a failing start-up. Watching our staff whittle to half its size every few weeks was starting to take a toll on the remaining employees. I was grateful to still be working, but I wondered whether I should start looking into another job -- something more secure.

Robert McChesney and John Nichols feel that Americans have a patriotic duty to support newsgathering with our tax dollars. They've laid out their case in a new book, The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again (Nation Books, 2010), and they're barnstorming the country to promote their ideas for government mechanisms to support the fourth estate.

How do we know the truth of what is happening in Haiti - especially those of us who are in the global north and west, our perceptions shaped by a tragic history, largely unknown, in which our governments have often been complicit? As the immediate rescue effort becomes a sustained task of recovery how do we know when ideology and naked self-interest warp news accounts and recovery efforts? 

I graduated from college into a recession and, unable to find work, I turned to temping. My first assignment was two weeks of filing. When I finished the task in two-and-a-half days my boss said, "Maria, you're wicked smart" and he set about to find a way to keep me on.

At the end of 2009, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was too young in the 1980s to experience the wrath of the backlash against feminist achievements, but the revival (and worse, implementation) of Reagan-era policies and ideas in the first decade of the 21st century shattered my faith in humanity. I know that the arrival of a new decade and political cycle doesn't mean that progress is back in terms of feminism and gender (history is a pretty good indication that another anti-woman, anti-gender equality shit storm will hit again), but at least the attack on women's rights and gender issues is not relentless right now.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a major address at the Newseum in Washington DC on January 21. She spoke in favor of uncensored access to the Internet and elaborated on the position the U.S. has taken regarding Internet freedom.

She'll sit and stare at it for five minutes.She'll try to think of something funny from the day before. She'll fail.She'll try to think of something profound. She'll fail.She'll check her stats and referrals to see if there's a good story.Seeing the stats will depress her, and there's nothing in the referrals that's juicy.So she'll get up from the computer. To get a cup of coffee.On the way there, she will trip over five pairs of shoes. So she'll yell.

The New York Times announced today that it will start charging for online news in 2011. The "metered model" will allow viewers to see "a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access."

* * * UPDATE - February 1, 2010: The BlogHer '10 International Activist Scholarship has officially closed. Thank you so much to everyone who participated by nominating activist bloggers. You're just one of the many reasons we love the BlogHer community! * * * Today we are proud to announce the BlogHer '10 International Activist BlogHer scholarship program and invite you to submit yourself or your favorite international activist BlogHer for consideration for this scholarship.

After recapping (to the best of my ability) feminism in the aughts, I am now focused on what I'd like to see happen in the new decade we are in.

The clamor for passage of a federal shield law that includes bloggers has risen after two travel bloggers found themselves slapped with subpoenas last week for publishing redacted documents from the Transportation Security Agency.